Developers Sue Eric Adams Over Elizabeth Street Garden

The would-be developers of affordable housing at the Elizabeth Street Garden are suing the city, claiming that the mayor illegally dedicated the site as a city park.

Pennrose, Riseboro and Habitat for Humanity New York City and Westchester, who were tapped in 2017 to build 123 senior housing units on the city-owned site, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday alleging that Mayor Eric Adams illegally designated the site as a city park.

The complaint accuses Adams of unilaterally deciding the site’s future use without going through the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, or Ulurp, which is required to map land as a city park.

“Nothing in State or local law, the City Charter, or otherwise empowers the mayor or mayoral agencies to dedicate City-owned land as parkland,” the lawsuit states.

The complaint names Adams, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, the city Department of Parks & Recreation and First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro as defendants.

“It is unfortunate that these developers have now brought a frivolous lawsuit to try to leverage a better deal in negotiations with the city,” Mastro said in a statement. “The city has followed all proper procedures to designate this site as parkland, and this is a meritless lawsuit that does not have New Yorkers’ best interest in mind.”

A City Hall spokesperson indicated that the development team was in negotiations with the city related to developing another site, 22 Suffolk Street, one of three sites that the city has decided will be rezoned for housing to make up for the loss of the garden site. The spokesperson would not provide details on this process, nor how the negotiations were occurring with a formal request for proposals.

The administration maintains that Ulurp is only required when it is transferring city property to private interests, not when it is moving a site from one city agency’s purview to another. Still, that doesn’t address how the official use on the city map will be changed.

The lawsuit cites reports of a Nov. 6 letter to Parks Commissioner Iris Rodriguez-Rosa from DCAS Commissioner Louis Molia, announcing that the “city unequivocally and permanently dedicates this property to public use as parkland.”

The move came after the Adams administration reversed its position on the project, known as Haven Green, announcing that it would not evict the longstanding sculpture garden from the site. Instead, the administration cut a deal with local Council member Chris Marte, who agreed to support the rezoning of three other sites that would net 620 affordable units, more than 400 apartments than were planned for the garden site.

The reversal drew criticism from City Council leaders, housing advocates, developers and other elected officials. The decision came after years of litigation, in which the city eventually secured its ability to evict the nonprofit that leases the Nolita garden.

In the lawsuit, the development team points out that the administration abandoned a “shovel-ready” project for ones that are far from certain. It also questions the relationship between Mastro and attorney Norman Siegel, who had represented the nonprofit, and Adams’ former chief of staff, Frank Carone, who has supported opponents of Haven Green. The administration’s reversal came after Mastro was made first deputy mayor in March and announced he was “reviewing the project.”

The suit also states that, in addition to Ulurp, a parkland designation requires the parks department to “conduct a needs assessment, develop cost estimates, and secure a budget allocation.”

The developers are seeking a temporary restraining order to halt the administration’s declaration to “preserve the incoming administration’s ability to make decisions about the property’s future,” the development team said in a statement.

Ultimately, the team wants the court to annul the parkland designation, which it argues is driven by the mayor’s desire to prevent the next mayor from “implementing the project and to deliver by unlawful fiat an unearned victory to the well-heeled private interests that had fought Haven Green from the start.”

Ahead of the November election, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani indicated that he would move forward with Haven Green and evict the garden. After the Adams administration declared the land a park, Mamdani told reporters that pursuing the project would be “nearly impossible.” Using city parkland for other uses would require action by the state legislature.

The nonprofit that leases the garden’s space called the lawsuit “a misguided attempt to overturn a lawful and long-overdue action by the city of New York to protect one of the last remaining green spaces in our neighborhood.”

“For years, Elizabeth Street Garden has served the public as a place of beauty, respite, education, and community connection,” the group continued. “The City’s decision to place the Garden under Parks jurisdiction reflects this long-standing public use and affirms the Garden’s environmental, cultural, and artistic significance.”

(The site, which has been leased since the 1990s, opened to the public in 2013, as the city began pursuing development plans.)

The lawsuit argues that allowing the mayor to declare the site parkland outside the legal process will have far-reaching implications.

“If allowed to stand, Respondents’ actions would establish dangerous precedents: that the Mayor, or any mayoral agency, could unilaterally overturn a completed ULURP by executive fiat; that a land-use decision duly vetted, debated, and approved by the City Council may be silently reversed without public process; and that the rule of law governing New York City’s land-use system can be disregarded and displaced by political convenience and preference,” the lawsuit states. “That is not what the City Charter mandates, and it is not how a lawful government functions.”

Representatives for the mayor did not immediately return requests seeking comment.